


Costs

by Rochelle_Templer



Series: Inktober For Writers 2017 [28]
Category: City Hunter (Manga)
Genre: Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 03:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12573064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rochelle_Templer/pseuds/Rochelle_Templer
Summary: Ryo considers the responsibilities he had...and the price he has to pay for them....





	Costs

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of my Inktober for Writers project. The prompt for this fic was "power".

Ryo Saeba knew why the worst criminals in the Shinjuku underworld feared him.

Some might have thought it was because Ryo was an expert in taking people or whole organizations out. Or because he had a reputation for being ruthless in his methods. Or perhaps even because all the attempts to stop him in the past had ended in catastrophic failure.

But Ryo believed it was much simpler, much more subtle than that. It wasn’t his actions or even his decisions that the depraved members of society were terrified of. It was the power. The power that he had over life or death, prosperity or destruction.

It was the power to decide who could continue to exist and who would be erased…and the power to make those decisions come to fruition.

Standing on the roof of his building, Ryo lit up a cigarette and watched the whirls of smoke dance over the city lights. The knowledge that he had this power was one of the most difficult things he had to endure as a sweeper. Even more than the awareness of how much blood was on his hands. This knowledge came with all the temptations to use his power for selfish reasons and the responsibilities to find ways to alleviate suffering with it instead. It was a struggle he had to confront daily and probably would continue to follow him for the rest of his life.

Ryo smirked and took another long drag on his cigarette. This wasn’t the best place to contemplate this subject. From here, people looked like animated specks of dust. There was little than distinguished one speck from the other and all of them seemed trivial. How could someone with his power appreciate the value of lives he watched from afar?

“Ryo!”

Ryo dropped his cigarette and snuffed it out with the toe of his boot before turning to face Kaori.

“Ah, Kaori-chan,” he laughed. “I was just about to….”

“I was getting ready to make dinner,” Kaori interrupted. “I’m making oden so it’s going to be late tonight.”

“Oh good,” Ryo smirked. “That will give the stomach medicine I bought time to take effect before I eat.”

Kaori narrowed her eyes at him, and for a moment, Ryo thought another hammer would soon appear. However, she surprised him by grinning, a look that could be even more dangerous than her angry looks.

“Ryo…don’t forget you agreed to finish the cleaning in the basement,” she said a little too sweetly. “That is, unless you want to me to come up with a different chore for you.”

“Oh no, no, no,” Ryo said, shaking his head. “I’ll get to it right after dinner.”

“I thought so,” Kaori chuckled. She turned on her heel and went downstairs. Ryo turned back to the skyline of the city and let out a sigh.

Even if he were to get down from the roof and mingle among the people rushing about on the streets below, Ryo knew it wouldn’t make a difference. He would still be watching them from a distance. There would always be a separation between him and other people. That was also a price he had to pay for his power.

And it was never more keenly felt than when he edged along the wall he had put up between himself and Kaori. A barrier he could never allow to come down because he valued her life too much.

Because he still had the power to keep her safe. The only cost was bitterness he had to let into his soul.


End file.
